The WVCA was founded in 1941 to foster and promote chess activity in the state of West Virginia.

Post navigation

The 79th WV State Championship was held on September 9-10, 2017 at the Shall We Dance Ballroom in Mount Nebo, WV. 19 players from 3 states competed in the event. Ted Belanoff, a master with ties to WV, won the event with a 4.5/5 score. The WV championship race in the last round consisted of Ed Garner, John Roush, Ben Good, Sam Timmons, and Lewis Sanders. Ed Garner drew quickly and any non-draw on board 2 and 3 would result in a championship. John Roush outlasted Ben Good and Sam won over Lewis in a position where at one point he had 4 pawns for a bishop. John and Sam finished with 4 points to tie for 2nd-3rd. Ed finished with 3.5 just out of the prizes.

Special thanks to Matt and Amanda Barber, owners of the Shall We Dance ballroom for supporting the event. They will also host the WV Action Championship in conjunction with their annual Missing Pieces charity tournament.

19 players competed in the Mid-Ohio Valley Open in Parkersburg on August 20, 2017. The open section was won by Tom Magar of PA with a perfect 4-0 score. David Hines, Sam Timmons, Omkar Yadav, and John Sefton tied for 2nd at 3-1.

Due to a budget shortfall, the Parkersburg Homecoming did not hold events on Sunday. The tournament site and name for the Parkersburg Homecoming chess tournament was changed as a result. This is the 25th year for the event.

Update:
Thanks to Total Defense Internet Security Solutions, the donation to NCMEC has been doubled!

The Missing Pieces Charity Chess Tournament recently celebrated its second year with an impressive showing from the community who turned out to support the organization in its annual attempt to raise both awareness and funds for The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children – which boasts an AMAZING 97% recovery rate when it comes to finding our nation’s missing children!

Many hands were on deck – Maloney’s Pub’s back deck to be specific – to play and cheer on this year’s bunch of competitors. In the junior division, Mr. Maddox Smallwood of Summersville, WV, returned to successfully defend his title against an increasingly difficult lineup of competitors, while in the adult division a new champion was crowned… Mr. Michael Hennessey, an employee of Maloney’s Pub, who was reluctantly dragged into competition, served himself up his first taste of a Missing Pieces title all-the-while serving other restaurant patrons!

Maloney’s Pub graciously donated 10% of all sales during the competition, and Mr. Benjamin Good showed what a true champion is made of! Mr. Good, multi-time West Virginia State Champion and all-around “Good guy,” donated his time, his expertise, his company, and his chess books for auction at the tournament! Mr. Good played ousted individual competitors one-on-one, he handily beat 12 players in a simultaneous exhibition, and he beat the newly crowned adult champion never once looking at the board!

Missing Pieces wishes to thank all the competitors and their families and friends who turned out for the event, Maloney’s for offering the use of their space and the donation from the proceeds of the tournament sales, and Mr. Benjamin Good for his tireless efforts and incredible generosity and who continues to make the event such an amazing success!

Due to all those who attended and participated in the tournament, the book auction, the food sales (yum!), and who gave generous donations, Missing Pieces is proud to report that several hundred dollars were raised for The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. If You would like to find out more about this incredible organization, please check out their website: www.MissingKids.org. The simplest way to donate to the NCMEC is to change all of Your Amazon purchases from www.amazon.com to smile.amazon.com where You’ll find all of the same low prices, fast shipping, and great customer service; however, a portion of the proceeds can be directed by You to support either The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children or the charity of Your choice. To stay up-to-date with next year’s tournament please “like” Missing Pieces’ Facebook page: www.facebook.com/MissingPiecesCharity

The 2017 WV Action Championship was held June 10, 2017 in Ripley. Jimmy Fuller is the 2017 WV Action Champion, taking clear first with 5/6. Sam Timmons, Ed Garner, and Dave Hundley tied for second with 4/6.

Congratulations to John Roush, who is a winner of the US Chess Outstanding Career Achievement Award. Also notable is Former US Senator Jay Rockefeller, who was named as Special Friend of US Chess. See the full announcement at uschess.org.

The 4th Peter DuPuy memorial event was held June 3, 2017 at the Benedum Civic Center in Bridgeport.

Jim Anthony, a friend of Peter DuPuy, attended the event and told us a little bit about Peter. Jim and Peter had been friends for some time, and Peter would always tell Jim how he was in the middle of playing chess on the computer when Jim would call. Charles McCallister began working for Jim at a nuclear plant in Vermont several years ago. Jim found out that Charles played chess and introduced him to Peter. The three of them were good friends from then on.

Peter had heart trouble and died seven years ago with Jim and Chuck at his side. Chuck decided to hold a memorial tournament in Peter’s honor and has held the event four times now in West Virginia where Chuck resides.

21 players attended the event, including Grandmaster Alex Shabalov of Pittsburgh, who has played in all four. Alex won the event with a 4-0 score. The running joke of the event was to see who could last the longest against him.

Lawrence Iorio was up first and lasted 19 moves before impending checkmate. Michael Felton was next and faced the same fate in 9 moves. Markle Butcher castled into fire in an 6. h3 Najdorf and lasted 22 moves.

Your webmaster (Benjamin Good) was the only other 3-0 going into the last round. I made some early mistakes and was faced with a 2 pawn disadvantage and a weakened king position. However, I had a slight bit of counterplay with an active queen and rook and weakened dark squares near Shabalov’s king. Alex thought for a good twenty minutes about how to handle the situation. He gave up one pawn to trade off the pieces, and won a rook and pawn endgame. The game was the last game to finish in the tournament and went 46 moves.